Hi Bob
I'd gotten the hard drive for the Nicolet but not had time to
fiddle with it. I'm currently redoing my code for the floppy drive
on my Nicolet.
I have a couple disk platters that should be able to be used
for the hard drive ( and one that had a head crash ). I'd
cleaned up the heads on the drive and with the new disk, seems
OK.
I've not fiddle with it since though.
I was wondering if you'd like to fiddle with it on your Nicolet.
You could barrow it for some time and install the demon code
on it.
On a separate issue, when I'd gotten my Nicolet, I had 2 failed
ICs. One was a 7474 and the other was a DTL with expanded
input ( I swapped a location that didn't need the expander
input and use a TTL there for that part ).
I just got started again and found the address wouldn't increment.
After some frantic trouble shooting ( knowing it was Saturday and
most places would be closed tomorrow for parts ), I finally traced
it to a bad 7404. It is not easy without an extender card.
I'd attach a couple wires to locations I wanted to see and stick the
card back in. I must have pulled an inserted two of the cards
30 times. I hope is wiped the connector pins good and clean.
If you should decide to make an extender, I'd split the cost of the
boards with you. I think it would be easy to make three separate
extenders and put a rail across them to hold them together.
It wouldn't be too bad to just have the three separate ones and
be careful connecting things.
I believe they are just three 100 pin connectors, like S100 boards
use.
Dwight
I already checked the manuals on bitsavers, user, diagnostic and service
manuals are there, together with scsi interface specifications... but no
schematics.
thanks for the help with measurements!
could you confirm that the drive gives no interface error if powered
without scsi connection to a host?
thanks
Andrea
The 42U racks I have are too big for my house, so im looking for a
couple of 24U enclosed racks.
Im located In Farwell Michigan
Let me know what you have
Thanks
Steve
Hello,
I'm repairing an M4data 9914 tape drive.
After fixing some problem with psu, replacing the roller rubber with a cut
of tubing, cleaning mechanical parts, oiling some pulleys, now it starts up
on power on, runs diagnostics, but unfortunately ends with a **BIFF error
(scsi interface).
The drive hasn't been connected to a pc via scsi yet.
I have a couple of questions:
- what should be the correct external diameter of the rubber roller?
- where could I find schematics?
thanks
Andrea
> From: Johnny Billquist
>> I compared the DEC part numbers on the RA81 slides and some RL02 slides
>> I have, and ... they are indeed the same part number!
> What? That can't be. They are physically different.
All I know are the following facts:
- I bought a group of surplus RL02 drives from a scrap dealer, and they came
with slides with the following part #'s: 1213686-00 Rev-K1-R and 1213686-00
Rev-K1-L. (BTW, I have extra -L's, if anyone needs them; will trade for
something useful.)
- I bought a machine which had previously belonged to DEC in Vancouver, and
it came with a couple of RA81 drives, and they had slides with the following
(identical to the above) part #'s: 1213686-00 Rev-K1-R and 1213686-00
Rev-K1-L.
The two slide sets above are completely identical in appearance; the only
difference is that the part # is in different places on the two.
- I was given an RL02 drive a while back, and it came with slides, but they
don't have any part #'s that I can see.
They look almost identical to the ones above, except that the newer ones have
two rocking trip levers (one in the middle, and one at one end), and the
older ones have only one (the one in the middle).
Noel
On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 1:50 PM, John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> wrote:
>
> Cue the "Such as I am, such shalt thou be" refrain, and a reminder
> that if we pass before arranging the post-mortem disposition of
> our collections, it could all land in the dumpster, or maybe at
> an estate sale if we're lucky.
>
> - John
>
>
Shameless plug - we cover exactly this topic in the latest Retro Computing
Roundtable episode #95, which should be on the air pretty soon at
http://rcrpodcast.com.
- Earl
On 3/2/2015 1:50 PM, John Foust wrote:
>
> t was interesting. He also had a picture of Goddard.
> Yes, the art caught my eye, too. An emphasis on Bali or Indonesia.
> And a large format VCR.
>
> Cue the "Such as I am, such shalt thou be" refrain, and a reminder
> that if we pass before arranging the post-mortem disposition of
> our collections, it could all land in the dumpster, or maybe at
> an estate sale if we're lucky.
>
> - John
>
>
I made contact with the company conducting the sale, and the stuff in
the photos which didn't sell are still available. I will post more
photos of items sometime this week if they look of interest here. I
don't know what is left, but it may be interesting.
I'm helping another list member obtain an item from the sale, and can
look at the other stuff if anyone is interested.
thanks
Jim
I'm not in the habit of bringing my photography projects here, in fact this might be a first. I'm hoping someone might recognize this, or at least have an estimate as to when it was made. I'm guessing somewhere between the 1950's and 1970's. Google is useless, the only thing it found, when I looked, was this photo, twelve minutes after I'd posted it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zanes-photography/16504361399/
Zane
Hello,
I recently acquired an HP9100B which was working before shipping, but on arrival does not respond. The fuses are intact, and I can hear the power supply humming on power up, but there is no CRT output, and I cannot activate the error light (for example, by STOP-CLEAR-/ to get a divde by 0 error.) The register label backlight also doesn't light, but apparently did not light before shipping, when the calculator otherwise worked.
I have Tony Duell's excellent schematics, which I'm grateful for. I also have a service manual, and plan to go through it, but it seems a bit short on theory and detail. I'm not in position to swap out boards.
I haven't been able to check it out in depth yet, but this week I will be able to spend some time on it.? I have, however, done some basic inspection, and reseated whatever boards are accessible without a screwdriver.? This didn't help anything.? I didn't hear any rattling from the CRT, but haven't yet pulled it out to inspect it.
My plan is to start out by checking the power supply voltages, clocks, and move on from there. However, since apparently something changed during shipping, I'd be interested in any suggestions that would help inform a smarter investigation. I am hopeful it's not the CRT, as I would expect a bad CRT to not interfere with the error light.
Any suggestions or guidance would be very much appreciated.
Dave
Available, free, first come first serve:
M9202 Unibus long jumper (I have 3)
DEFPA-DA dual attached FDDI PCI NIC (untested, no software, but believed to be working)
paul
In a lot of contexts that predate widespread adoption of ISO 2014 and
ISO 8601 (and their relatives), I've seen dates represented in a form
such as "02-MAR-79" or "02-MAR-1979". This is similar to the RFC
822/1123 date format, except that those RFCs don't use a hyphen
between the components, and use mixed-case for the month.
Was there ever an official standard defining such a representation?
I was just informed that the "new manufacture" mounting brackets for the
7970E are ready. I saw them at about 90% of the fabrication process being
complete and they looked really good. Today I'm going to stop at the
hardware store and buy a set of bolts/nuts/washers that match the originals
(got them there before so I know they have the right ones) so that I can
ship each one with a baggie of the "right stuff". I will probably have them
shipped out to the people that wanted one by the end of next week-ish.
If you were one of those people that confirmed you needed one or two, please
email me your shipping address.
Best,
J
I have numerous requests lately PDP8 parts. In digging out some I knew I
had more than I would ever use. The following is a list of boards that are
probably not needed for my current plans.
Please contact me off list. Shipping is from 61853. $10 for any qty shipped
to US.
For sale or trade.
M8315 8A cpu $150
M8316 option #1 150
M8320 100
M8342 LS8-E 100
M8350 POS I/O 150
M8360 Data Break 150
M8365 LC8-P 75
M8366 LQP8E 75
M841 LE8-E 100
M865 KL8 100
M8650 Kl8 100
M8650-YA 100
M8652 100
M8653 100
M866 DP8-E 100
M884 KG8-E 100
Thanks, Paul
They also dug up some BC01W-25 cables that I thought were LCG cables, which
I have some here somewhere.
According to the option module list they are for Bell series 303 modems and
work on the DP8-EB, DQ11, and who knows what else...
If interested, please contact me off list.
Thanks, Paul
I had my hired help here yesterday digging some things out for me. While
looking for a LAB-8 for a list member they dug up a Lab Peripheral System
11. If anyone is interested in that or a MINC-11, please contact me off
list.
Oh, were still looking for the LAB-8. Maybe next weekend...
Thanks, Paul
I have a couple of 8" drives Mitsubishi M2863 slim type that I recovered I
think around on 1990 both in excellent conditions with which I created
images and written several floppy disks 8". For some reason, including my
incompetence, both their spindle motor do not run any more. And powering
correctly with only +24Vdc the circuit part of the engine rotation control
of the disk (called spindle motor) begins to smoke near a chip LB1620. The
schematic contained in the maintenance manual of the drive includes
components of other different model of spindle motor circuit. If that were
possible, how could I to be able to run the drives correctly: reusing partly
engine or even replacing it with analogous maybe even creating handcrafted a
motor with pieces of recovery and manage the number of RPM (I think 360rpm
for 8" drive) possibly with special circuit ?
At this moment there is a shortcircuit between +24vdc pin and ground pin.
Pics
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p12w71v69tjgfz7/AAAIReql4Se5ZCkLClPoAVOPa?dl=0
references
M2896-63_Maintenance_Manual
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8rhukkr1xf78m8c/M2896-63_Maintenance_Manual.pdf?dl
=0
M2896-63_Half-Height_Drive_Brochure
https://www.dropbox.com/s/elmj3nwz59dz2eo/M2896-63_Half-Height_Drive_Brochur
e.pdf?dl=0
Spindle motor SRC SHINANO TOKKI CORP. MADE IN JAPAN 702V
Modello DLF-3ME DC24V
Any suggestion is welcome.
Enrico
> From: Guy Sotomayor
> I'm using FRAM. They have unlimited write cycles
Although I hear the latest flash have very, very large numbers of write
cycles. But if you can get large enough FRAMs, yeah, they seem like a better
alternative.
> I didn't want to have any sort of removable media as that bring its own
> sets of challenges.
Oh well, back to loading all the bits in over a serial line (although I
suppose if one has some other removable media drive, e.g. a RX02, one could
get the bits in that way).
>> (Or perhaps even a front-end running on a PC which is connected to
>> the MEM11 over the serial line.)
> That was my original thought (command front end) but that would mean
> writing/supporting a bunch of different programs for different
> OS/platforms
Well, probably only at most two (Windoze and Linux), and maybe only one (since
there are Windows emulation packages for Linux). Although if one stuck to a
line-oriented interface, something like CygWin would allow one to have only
one version.
> and I want the MEM11 to pretty much stand on its own
Oh, I agree that that's a worthy goal - the front-end would only be to make it
'user-friendly', instead of cryptic and terse.
> the realistic limit will be on the Unibus interface ICs. I have (at
> last inventory) enough for ~25 boards. After that I'll have to see if I
> can either source additional parts or re-design that part of the board
> to use something else.
Yes, that _is_ a problem...
Noel
How can one not be impressed by L. Nimoy's portrayal of Mr. Spock?
His character was logical, almost computer-like, but was far more a
portrait of humanity than most care to admit to. Ancient/classic
computing was a hall-mark of Star Trek and Spock personified that
relationship.
Murray :)
On 02/27/2015 06:17 AM, John Foust wrote:
> At 06:45 PM 2/26/2015, you wrote:
> You're not concerned about the tolerance and re-centering issues?
> You think the cookie will fit back on the hub precisely enough
> that it'll be aligned with where tracks were before?
Not so much. A 3.5" floppy is recorded at 135 tpi, where an
80-cylinder 5.25" floppy at 96 tpi. On 5.25" Drivetec floppies, the
cylinder density is double that--192 tpi.
Now consider the hub-clamp mechanism of a 5.25" drive. I suspect that
with a bit of care, one can probably get things right most of the time.
--Chuck
I am delighted to report that after a long time, and with help from all
over the world, I have finally got my MV/2500DC up-and-running.
Some details are on my blog
http://www.stephenmerrony.co.uk/dg/2015/02/Disk-Replacement-Success.html
Now I am resurrecting my DG Assembler skills to bootstrap a file
transfer program onto the machine...
Thanks to everyone who has helped.
Steve
--
/Stephen Merrony
http://www.stephenmerrony.co.uk//dg
Brief clip from a 1966 documentary about von Neumann:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po3vwMq_2xA
Goldstine presenting while standing in front of the IAS machine, which appears to be decommissioned and in storage.
Fuel for the eternal fire: Goldstine seems to be pretty definite in attributing the stored-program concept to Johnny.
So, in the course of tracking down the mentioned von Neumann papers, I ran
across this:
http://www.tomandmaria.com/tom/Writing/MorozovQuixote.htm
which is utterly hilarious. (Note: it's even funnier if you're familiar with
the work of Borges.)
Noel
I want to sell a couple of MicroVaxes that I had installed the hobbyist
OpenVMS software on quite some time ago.
The OpenVMS Hobbyist website says I must delete the license PAKS before
I transfer the hardware to someone else.
How do you actually do this?
On 02/26/2015 03:13 PM, John Foust wrote:
>
> I tried it. Didn't seem to stick - apart from the potential
> for misalignment.
>
> I wonder what substance was used in the original manufacturing.
Well, there's always polyurethane glue (e.g. Gorilla glue), but it
wouldn't be my first choice. How about clear nail polish?
I've got some 3.5" "trash can disks". I man give it a try to see if it
can work. Are you confronted with a particular brand?
--Chuck
On 2/26/2015 1:42 PM, John Foust wrote:
> While reading old Amiga floppies with the SuperCard Pro, I have
> encountered several floppies where it seems the mag-media cookie
> is no longer attached to the metal hub.
I've never had luck reattaching the media to the hub when it becomes
detached. (I've used a dab of thin but sticky glue.) I chalked it up
to not being able to get the alignment perfect, but it could just be
coincidence that my media had failed at the same time.
I have a C program that generates the nice 5x7 font (actually using the 8th row as a descender on lower case) suitable for punching in paper tape.? I've used it on my Facit 4070 paper tape punch with good results.
The 4070 is attached with a simple adapter to a standard printer port.
If desired, I can supply details.
I have a C program that generates the nice 5x7 font (actually using the 8th row as a descender on lower case) suitable for punching in paper tape.? I've used it on my Facit 4070 paper tape punch with good results.
The 4070 is attached with a simple adapter to a standard printer port.
If desired, I can supply details.
A friend and I are trying to set up Domain/OS 10.3 on a 425 system. 10.3
appears to be the last release that will run on both the 425 system and the
DN300 we are trying to netboot.
In order to boot the Domain/OS 10.3 stock tapes on the 68040 based 425, we
will need the PSK8 kit.
Does anyone have images or tapes of:
--
Ian Finder
(206) 395-MIPS
ian.finder at gmail.com
On 02/26/2015 10:42 AM, John Foust wrote:
>
> While reading old Amiga floppies with the SuperCard Pro, I have
> encountered several floppies where it seems the mag-media cookie
> is no longer attached to the metal hub.
>
> I first saw this when I tried to clean the cookie with a swab
> of isopropyl. I'd turn the hub but the media wouldn't turn.
>
> Any advice on repairing this? A spot of superglue?
That would be my first choice--probably the gel-type,
- Chuck
Jason Scott <jason at textfiles.com> wrote ..
> I wouldn't take it elsewhere with that spin if it was the key that unlocked
> the Destiny April DLC
>
So make your own submission, with whatever spin you like. Slashdot has fallen strangely silent on this story after building it up in the last few weeks and months, and most of last year. Curious, but not the first time that's happened.
jbdigriz
Fine, Jason. Just trying to observe protocols learned through previous list trauma. :-) No offense intended. Ignore my post to the list anyway. I see there was in fact a /. story on the vote published. My browser was stuck on the "idle" site somehow, earlier. My bad.
Jason Scott <jason at textfiles.com> wrote ..
> Don't send me one letter and send the list another. Here's what you sent me:
>
<cut>
Hi all, I have a PDP-11 print set (MP00196, M9301 Bootstrap/Terminator) which
is not online. I wish to scan my copy, and donate the scan to all the
repositories. What resolution should I scan it at?
I looked at a couple that are available as TIFFs, and they claim to be 600 dpi
- that can't be right, is it? If it is, no problem, I'm happy to do it at that
resolution, but I just don't want to do silly overkill.
Thanks!
Noel
Hello all,
I mailed about this last year, and got no response, so here again:
I'm looking for info on this very strange terminal/wordprocessor from
the early seventies:
http://aheckofa.com/FoolMeOnce/MiscScans/EarlyVideoWP400.pnghttps://hack42.nl/gallery/v/Museum/DSCF7634.JPG.htmlhttp://aheckofa.com/FoolMeOnce/MiscScans/Lexitron500.png
as you see, there is not much info on the web about this very beautiful,
yet strange beast.
Unfortunately the picture tube is broken and we are missing the main
processing unit. It seems that the display used vector graphics as the
horizontal an vertical are identical in design and the normal raster
scanning generators are missing. the terminal connected with a 94 pin
connector to the main unit, being also fed power though this cable.
anyone
--
Met vriendelijke Groet,
Simon Claessen
drukknop.nl
Anyone has the DEC font, as used to mark their papertapes, ready in machine readable format ? ( C include file preferred )
The 8x6 format I use now just does not have the right look to it.
Yep, I am recreating some of those papertapes...
Jos
On 26 February 2015 at 06:11, Jon Elson <elson at pico-systems.com> wrote:
> On 02/25/2015 08:33 PM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
>>
>> Brief clip from a 1966 documentary about von Neumann:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po3vwMq_2xA
>>
>> Goldstine presenting while standing in front of the IAS machine, which
>> appears to be decommissioned and in storage.
>>
>> Fuel for the eternal fire: Goldstine seems to be pretty definite in
>> attributing the stored-program concept to Johnny.
>>
>>
> Well, I'm not sure the stored program concept was unique to von Neumann, it
> was one of those concepts that was entirely ripe at that time.
Well, that IBM guy was pretty insistent that it was von Neumann's
idea, but that it's one of those ideas that seems so completely
obvious when you hear about it that you can't imagine that it hasn't
been around all the time. And nevertheless someone had to come up with
the thought first. And afterwards it can never be unthought. The
"meme" concept actually.
BTW the full 55 minutes documentary is on Youtube too.
I bought this rack to use to do some telco work, but its almost too big
for my needs. Id like to get $150 out of it. Its in really nice
shape. Needs cage nuts. Other then that everything is perfect on it.
Casters and everything. Has some rails installed as well. Someone
come pick it up out of my basement please.
A picture of it is here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/67970316 at N08/16220812147/
Cross Posting from the VOIP list. For all you telecom lovers and
telephone lovers.
Be Sure and Come on out to the Michigan Regional Show, The TimmyNet
Telephone Company Swap & Show April 11th in beautiful Clare Michigan.
Registration is open so get your registration in. We need all the
people we can get to make this show happen.
Event is located at the Doherty Hotel in Clare.
We will also be having a small vintage computer display as well. So
bring some machines with modems and make some noise. TimmyNet Telco
will be providing 16 lines of Dialtone for you to play with.
Here is a link to the website and show registration link is on the page
https://timmynetphoneshow.wordpress.com/
DEC released FOCAL-8 (FOrmula CALculator) in 1969 as a tool for numeric problem solving on the PDP "Family of 8" machines. The language allowed extension and at least two additional versions were made available to the public.
OMSI-P/S8 FOCAL is available of Dave Gesswein's site along with an HTML version of the online help as documentation. The manual for Jim van Zee's University of Washington Focal (UWF) is on bitsavers and also as FOCAL8-301 from DECUS.
I'm trying to find the missing pieces - an OMSI manual and UWF source and binaries.
Can anybody help?
Thanks,
Jack
I said:
$ license delete /all
but it should be:
$ license delete vms-user /all
because you cannot delete them all so easily. There is also an interactive
utility:
sys$update:vmslicense.com
--
Richard Loken VE6BSV, Unix System Administrator : "Anybody can be a father
Athabasca University : but you have to earn
Athabasca, Alberta Canada : the title of 'daddy'"
** richardlo at admin.athabascau.ca ** : - Lynn Johnston